Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-06-18

| faces were coming in. The promenaders on the
ST 70 onf
| their walk. It was much larger crowd than at
any other Of the previous stopping places. BY the
had started by half-past nearly all the Gospelers
rooms, where the party was dis6snded The man.
| ayers OF the mission are having wagon made es-
pecially for this purpose, which they hope will be
| ready for use very soon now.
WRITING OFFICIAL HISTORY.
The War Records office and it's volu.
! minOus Contents.
| RECOLLECTIoNs-HOw ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS
| AND FALSE HISTORY ARE coRREcTKD-THR coll
| LECTION IN CHARGE OF GEN. WRIGHT.
| The place where "war "reminiscences" are made
is here In Washington. It is little square, gray
stone building on street. Any sort OF war
Renaissance that is wanted can be had there on
| very short notice. The war articles that appear
| In such numbers In popular magazines and news
| papers, written by great generals, and privates
| with wonderful recOllections, come in part or in
full from this place. II general Of either
army is called upon by the Century or
some other popular periodical to write his
recOlect1ons of the war; he repairs at to this
place to gather up his recOllecttonS 1t is sort
OF magic cell which awakens tagging memory and
/
eral Beauregard, Colonel Allen General Corse CEN
eral smith and General Sherman all go there to put
on their thinking caps; or, when they do not go In
person, they write for information This great wax
ener OF recolections is the War Records ONCE The
amount OF information they have collected Is al
most inconceivable. A great mass OF the material
| for the war articles that have appeared In the
| Century, is dug out OF the records there. Many
old war veterans 60 there and search out the old
documents before writing the history of what they
saw. 1t Is astonishing how often they are forced
by the cold dried and we'll preserved facts to dis
obliged to revise their Impressions about things
with which they had thought themselves entirely
MEETING UNDER CHANGED CONDITIONS.
| Frequently officers of the two opposing armies
| who have led the charge against each others
| forces have met here for the first time to know
| each other. Each looking at the battle or the
maneuver from different standpoint, they come
There Is no chance for any quarrel about 1t. There
is no room for exaggeratiOn. The records are
right at hand to sustain the truth or to brand
| fallacy. Generally both men find that their i'm
pressions were not quite right. Facts make
| friends; so they soon become cordial There have
| been some remarkable meetings here of men who
fought hard face to face but never met before
All who have met this way have become friends
They sit and talk the whole thing over, cor
| rect each others errors OF memory, or are both
| set right by the record. Sherman, Sheridan
Beauregard, Hunt, Wallace, Long and the younger
Lees have met there. Sherman has drawn largely
upon these records in some of his writings. Gen.
| Grant, while writing his book, was in constant
communication with Gen. Marcus j. Wright, who
does the work Of collecting the Confederate rec
| ords. A large amount Of the matter In the book
was got In this way. He also furnished infOrma-
ton to the Office and corrected some erroneous
statements made. JEFF. Davis has drawn upon
this source for information for use in his book.
Gen; Wright has In nis possession letter book
filled with nothing but letters from Grant and
Davis upon the same SUBJECTS
THE CONFEDERATE WAR RECORDS.
Strange to say, Jen. Davis was among the very
first to respond to the call of the Government for
Official papers OF the COnfederacy. He sent all hi
papers cheerfully as soon as he received the re-
quest. When the work OF collecting the records
was first begun it was thought that they would
never be able to get enough OF the Confederate pa
years now Gen. Wright has been writing to the
surviving Confederate officers or the families of
ofncers who were killed, and he has succeeded In
collecting fully as complete record of the Con-
federate army as is had Of the Federal All letters
or orders written by officials Of officers Of the army
| the war are collected and compiled and printed
without editing. When the work is all done there
will have to be another history OF the war written
from these records. Many things that have been
accepted as truths will be proven by these records
to be absolutely false They will show that off1-
Gers on both sides have been overestimated, and
that other officers have never got the credit that
was due them.
CORRECTING FALSE IMPRESSIONS
There Is sort Of halo of romance surrounding
all the battles that puts history In false light
Oncers in writing reports OF battles under the ex-
element OF the time have often fallen into the
error OF exaggerating the enemies forces. One
very popular error which has been corrected by
these records is with relation TO the first battle Of
Bun Run. 1t has always been believed that the
Federal forces on that occasion greatly outnum-
bered the Confederates 1t has gone into history
| so. In the North as well as in the South 1t has
been accepted as fact not to be disputed and the
Northern people have always felt a little shame
| that their large army should have been defeated
| by so much smaller force OF Confederates. These
records bring to light the fact that there was not
| difference Of thousand men between the
IN n q fuyOQ rfrfn on6 Nffh n-n
engaged In the battle the Confederates had within
500 OF as many men as the FederalS. There are
number OF other where the odds OF battle have
| been accepted as very heavy, when such was not
! the case; and there are the expeditions OF plans
| and purposes that throw an entirely new light on
history. Besides the official records that will ALL
in course OF time, be bound in many volumes Gen.
Wright has In his possession many private letters
| written to him by officers on both Sides which
| will be OF great interest some time.
A GALLERY OF WAR PORTRAITS.
Another very interesting thing is the collection
OF photographs Of the Union and Confederate OIL
GERS. The walls OF the room In which he works is
covered with these photographs, and several large
size packing boxes are filled with them He has
the picture OF almost any officer on either side
any one would be likely to want. In all he has
about 1900 OF them, from generals to colonels cap
tains, lieutenants, and even privateS OF certain
| famous corps. One OF these latter groups is But
boris Battery, C.S. artillery. Federal and Confed-
in the collection, with here and there minister or
priest. All the famous commanding officers, and
hundreds VINO won fame within q narrower
limit, are there. The collection includes great
many pictures not 20 be had elsewhere, and this
gallery has been drawn upon largely for illustra-
t1OnS as the records have facts by war writer's
Sir Charles Russell Gets Angry.
From the st. James Gazette.
1t Is certainly somewhat startling to barrister
to be introduced personally to the scene BY a wit
ness whom he is crOss-examining. This happened
yesterday during the progress OF the libel action
brought by DR.. Pankhurst against Col. Hamilton.
lenged by Sir Charles Russell, who was cross
examining him on behalf OF the plaintiff as to
whether he had ever been told that Dr. Pankhurst
was an Atheist, declared amid much merr1ment.
In which the learned judge joined, that 1t was Sir
Charles himself who was his informant Where
upon counsel became extremely angry, and pro-
posed to stake his wig off and go into the box" In
order to give an absolute contradiction to the
statement; and very pretty little scene enSued
during the progress OF which many harsh terms
were used.
In the course OF trial which took place a few
| years ago the late Sergeant Ballantine asked a
witness II he had ever single individual 90
behind the scenes at certain theater eyes ser
geant." was the prompt reply, Il have seen you"
Don't you dare to introduce me into this matter"
| cried the sergeant, In voice Of thunder and the
unfortunate witness subsidized into his boots But
Sir Charles Russell, though "harbitrary gent. !"
did not succeed In overawtng his opponent SO
| easily.